Universal Principles of UX

03

UI makes or breaks usability.

Any product any designer creates is first and foremost measured by the effectiveness of its usability. Or in other words, how well a user can use that particular design helps them achieve their intended goal. Why? Because products, services, and messages that don’t work are annoying at best and disastrous at worst.

Since UX is about the totality of the experience a user has with a product or service, we tend to think high usability is achieved by simply focusing on UX. However, it’s a different discipline—UI—that is responsible for what end-users will actually interact with. Choices in things like layout, typography, information hierarchy, interactions, accessibility and information density is the responsibility ...